Help, please

[animallover]

Hi!
I have seahorses, coral, feather dusters, xenia, clove polyps, mandarin gobie, and an emerald crab. What should be my proper KH ppm? I'm not sure if my range should be in the 6-11 degree(100-200 ppm) or 11-22 degree (200-400 ppm)? I keep showing between 13-16 drops - is this ok? Also, I'm unsure --should my alkalinity be 6 meq/L or more or less? The following readings I took tonight:
Alkalinity 7 meq/L
PH 8.3
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Calcium 440 ppm
KH 13 drops or degrees (232.7 ppm)
Salinity 1.025
****Nitrate 30 ppm *****
How can my nitrates be this high if all my other levels are ok? Any input, anyone?
I appreciate any response. I have only been doing this since last October--any other advice on what I have and need to do is very much appreciated.
It is all about my seahorse for me, so if I have to adjust anything, it will be in the best interest of my seahorses

[findingnemo1]

Hi there

Alkalinity and Kh are one in the same.

It should be anywhere between 7 and 11 maximum.
Mine is at 8.
What test kits are you using?
Do you dose for the calcium and dkh? And if so what are you dosing...

Nitrates are an issue in tanks. Not enough water changes,clean up crew,overfeeding.
Do you have a sump? If a filter do you clean it regularily?
Any sponges that collect gunk.

[animallover]

Hi!
Thank you for replying. Here is my list to answer your ?'s.
I do at least twice per week:
KH test by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
Calcium by same brand as above
Marine pH & Alkalinity by Seachem
High range pH by API
Ammonia by API
Nitrite by API
Nitrate by API
Also use the Mardel saltwater test strips once per day. I do my water changes once per week (I have a 55 gallon tank, and I change 10 gallons every change). With every water change I add 25 drops of Aragamilk for my calcium and buffer. I also add 1/2 capful of Nutrafin pH stabilizer and KH booster. When my pH gets lower I add Seachem Marine buffer to maintain pH to 8.3. I have seven seahorses and I feed them twice a day at about ten mysis shrimp per horse. Maybe I could be over-feeding, cuz sometimes there is shrimp left on the sand, but I really try to keep up on syphoning it out with my turkey baster. My cleanup crew consists of about five good sized hermit crabs, one emerald crab, lots of bristle worms in my rock, four turbo snails-one huge one and three smaller ones- and I also have the gobie, does she count as cleanup? Yes I have a sump and my tank is not drilled. I have the four tray set up and was told to only change one level at a time, once per 4-6 weeks. I'm at about 6 - 8 weeks when I change these. So what say you?
Thanks in advance!! :)

[mark]

Natural Seawater always a good target. This link for NSW (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php) also has the range for different scales of alkalinity (meq/l, ppm, dKH).

[PoonTang]

you could try increasing the sizes or frequency of your water changes and cutting back on the dosing. Your Alk (KH) is quite high and your Cal is quite high depending on your corals. If your coral load is quite small you may not need to supliment at all. Most people dont worry too much about thier pH and dont tend to try to change it too much. The tank will usually find its own happy medium. It appears that you may be over feeding a little if there is that much left over food and it appears you are running some kind of mechanical filter and no skimmer? thus would be the source of your nitrates. 4-6 weeks is way too long to leave a mechanical filter running without changing it.

[edikpok]

Since you have a sump - you can put some macro algae in there that will consume nitrates and release nitrogen. I am sure that someone else will tell you the exact types as I am not too familiar with them...

In case you use sponges in your filtration water, make sure that you rinse them in aquarium water that you take out of your tank when you do the water changes... This will decrease the amount of waste in your tank and will lower your nitrates

[fishytime]

Describe please for us what is in these trays....most setups these days have little to no mechanical filtration. Bioballs, sponges etc. can quickly saturate with debris and leach nitrates back into the system. Also I imagine that a herd of horses like you have require quite a bit of food to keep them happy. Do you have a skimmer? If so, what kind and what size tank is it rated for?

[animallover]

Thank you all sooooo much for responding! This is how I love to learn--from others experiences and knowledge. I DO have a skimmer, but I only run it three nights a week, as it seems my one male horse keeps getting pouch emphysema if I run it longer or more than that. The skimmer is an in sump skimmer and it says it is a Marineland MSPS100--this is what manager of Big Al's suggested for my 55g tank. My tank was aquired last November, so the tank pumps and hoses and such were already wired up. I can't find any info on the pumps (brand, size, etc;). I will try my best to describe my tank set-up. Here goes......My sump has two pumps with hoses going up into my tank--these hoses bring the water up into the tank. I have a hanging filter on the back of my tank going most of the way into the tank water. I have a filter in this that I clean weekly. The water is cycled from this filter down into the top of the sump and drains into the four tray filters. As the water drains through the trays, it pours over and turns the aeration wheel. On the other side of this is where I have the two pumps, my skimmer and my heater. I do realize that this is a more primitive set up but I still love it and it's what I know. So far. By looking at Marc's AMAZING tank set up, I have a loooong way to go, lol. One day at a time, eh? At the risk of sounding totally inept, is this tray style filter system called "mechanical filter"? The top three trays have a stiffer pourous kind of batton that I cut to fit the trays, and the bottom tray is perforated to allow the water to fall over the aeration wheel. (God, I hope this makes sense to anyone besides me). And how often should I be changing these filters, and do I change them all at once or do I do one per week to keep the media going? I was told it was not good to change these tray filters all at the same time, correct or no? I can't think of what other info to give as it is getting quite late and I keep nodding off, lol. Thanks to all! :lol:

[Pescador]

Sounds like a Marineland Tidal Pool maybe looks like this?
http://www.aquariumguys.com/tidepool.html
I'm not that familiar with them but hopefully someone on here has some tips on modding it.
Do you have much live rock?
I'm thinking the trays and wheel might have to go and maybe an upgrade for your skimmer.

[fishytime]

+1 on the above advice....sounds like what you have is quite the nitrate factory..... wet dry filters and sumps are great for fresh water setups....not so much for salt:neutral:

[animallover]

Hi again!
Brian, the link you sent me on the sump is EXACTLY what I have. I;m not sure I understand, why should I get rid of the trays and wheel, and why get rid of skimmer (any suggestions as to what to get?) I wouldn't have a clue as to where to go from here to replace my sump system? I was told at one LFS that most find it hard to get their nitrate levels below 40-50ppm? He felt that since most of my parameters are good that my nitrates being at 20-30 was good. Because I'm quite new at this, I tend to believe what people in the business tell me. So if this info is bunk, I wouldn't know. You guys are scaring me a bit by telling me to get rid of my sump setup. I honestly don't know where to go from here. Thank you all again, as I truly appreciate the advice. Thanks to "fishytime" for taking your extra time with me! :)
PS I have about 20-25 pounds of live rock

[animallover]

Hi again!
Brian, the link you sent me on the sump is EXACTLY what I have. I;m not sure I understand, why should I get rid of the trays and wheel, and why get rid of skimmer (any suggestions as to what to get?) I wouldn't have a clue as to where to go from here to replace my sump system? I was told at one LFS that most find it hard to get their nitrate levels below 40-50ppm? He felt that since most of my parameters are good that my nitrates being at 20-30 was good. Because I'm quite new at this, I tend to believe what people in the business tell me. So if this info is bunk, I wouldn't know. You guys are scaring me a bit by telling me to get rid of my sump setup. I honestly don't know where to go from here. Thank you all again, as I truly appreciate the advice. Thanks to "fishytime" for taking your extra time with me!
PS I have about 20-25 pounds of live rock

[Pescador]

Hey
How big is your tank? If you have 1 to 1 1/2 lbs. of live rock per gallon you don't need the biowheel or any other media for biological filtration.
You could probably keep one of the filter trays for mechanical filtration if you change it frequently.
If you can remove the wheel and trays would that would free up some space in the sump? If it does see what the biggest skimmer footprint is that you could fit in there.
For nitrate levels I think most people with corals try to keep the levels under 10 ppm. Fish only tanks can be much higher.
I have no experience with sea horses but I don't think many people keep them in a reef because of the high water flow needed and I don't know about their tolerance for nitrate.

[BlueAbyss]

As was said above, biological filtration (the biowheel and apparently the batting that you use in your filter trays) is not needed in reef tanks, that's what the live rock is for. The reason they told you not to change all the filter material at once is for biological filtration... when you change it, you lose the bacteria that populate it. This works for fish only tanks, or tanks with little live rock... it is not needed (and probably the source of your nitrates) in a tank with lots of live rock.

Skimmer tend to work best when they are run constantly. Something about the interaction of the proteins and the 'skin' that forms on the inside surfaces of the skimmer body makes them more efficient when they've been running for a couple days to a week straight, or so I've been told.

It's obvious that you don't have a lot of flow in the display (you are keeping seahorses after all), have you considered adding some live rock to your sump? Larger chunks will have deeper areas that are anaerobic, which provides a place for the nitrate consuming bacteria to live.... while you're at it, you could run some Chaetomorpha algae in there with light, that will also help with the nitrates. Or grow some other macro on the rock.

Some fish do poorly in nitrate laden water... something to keep in mind if your fishes look a little off.

[whatcaneyedo]

The Basics of Filtration for the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/beginner.htm

Skimming Basics 101: Understanding Your Skimmer
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/fm/feature/index.php

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

The Reef Aquarium Volume 3 by C. Delbeek & J. Sprung
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/lit-tra3/The+Reef+Aquarium+Volume+3+by+C.+Delbeek+%26+J.+Sp rung+(Hardcover).html